Thursday, October 11, 2007

The day Al Arbour motivated the guy from "Shawshank"

With Al Arbour's one-night return to the Islanders bench just a few weeks away, the Radar stories were plentiful at today's morning skate in Toronto.

My favorite had to do with a celebrity hockey game Al was asked to coach in Los Angeles a few years ago. About midway through the game, Al's team was trailing and he started double-shifting one of his lines. One of his benched players, actor, director and Rangers fan Tim Robbins, finally became exasperated and challenged The Coach.

"Hey, when am I gonna get back out there,"? asked the star of "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Bull Durham." "What's going on here"?

Arbour fired back: "Two things - WE'RE losing and YOU stink"!

After sitting him out a little longer, Arbour eventually sent out Robbins, who proceeded to play the game of his life.

So if you think Al's just showing up for a photo op on Nov. 3, think again.